Additional Needs

Keeping Kids With Special Needs Safe

Posted by Faith, Hope and Love on 11th August 2016 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

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We put locks on all cabinets containing poisonous cleaning supplies, and we place every sharp kitchen knife way up high, out of sight on top of our highest shelf!

When we find out our kids have special needs, keeping them safe becomes a whole different ball game altogether!

Safety proofing a house for our special needs kids can pose quite the challenge!

Our kids may not mature mentally and emotionally like typically developing kids do, but their bodies mature and grow bigger, stronger, and more physically adept just the same.

One day before we know it, our special needs kids will be climbing over the baby gate, figuring out how to unlock the cabinet where the poisonous cleaning supplies are kept, and suddenly one day, they'll somehow figure out that they can climb up to the top shelf where all the sharp kitchen knives are kept!

The problem is, even though they are physically able to do all that climbing and figuring out, they don't understand that they can get hurt or even die while doing so.

Many of our special needs kids just do not understand the meaning of danger and many never will!

Many of our kids are escape artists and wanderers, too!

And it's our job as their parents to protect them and keep them safe.

Try as hard as we might however, it is literally impossible to be supervising and watching our children every single second of every single day!

Never fear however, because there are safety measures you can take and products that you can purchase to make your home and yard a safer place and that will ultimately keep your child safer.

So how can we keep the house and yard safe for our precious kids with special needs?

Install safety bumpers on all doors so that fingers don't get pinched.

Use a baby monitor system when you can't be in the same room with your child.

Move all breakable, fragile and/or valuable items out of sight and reach of your child.

Install padlocks on all cabinets containing medications and poisonous or otherwise dangerous items.

Purchase a special needs safety bed to keep your little night owl safe while you sleep.

Another option for little night owls is to install a dutch door on your child's bedroom - leave the top half open so your child does not feel so confined, (if he's not a climber) and so you can see what's going on inside!

Install locks on all doors to rooms that are off limits to your child. This could even include bathrooms if necessary!

Put locks on all windows.

Install window and door alarms that will alert you if your child opens them.

Install a tall fence with locked gates around your entire yard and pool if you have one!

Purchase a Perimeter System and establish physical boundaries for your child. If he moves beyond the boundary an alarm will sound off.

Provide your child with a GPS locating device.

If he or she does manage to wander off or get lost, you'll be able to find him or her quickly and easily.

Far too many special needs parents feel as if they can never let their guard down.

They feel as if they're on hyper alert all day, every day, 24/7 making sure their precious special kids are safe and sound at all times.

But even special needs parents need to be able to relax in their own homes once in a while...

By implementing some or all of the above measures, I guarantee you'll be able to loosen up, decompress and let your guard down, if even just a little!